Richmond, Virginia – Virginians for High Speed Rail (VHSR), a statewide non-profit founded in 1994 to educate and advocate for the expansion of fast, frequent, and reliable passenger rail service has endorsed the Washington, DC to Richmond, VA high speed rail study recommendations of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) while offering a few suggestions for the final draft environmental impact statement expected out soon.

VHSR offers the following statement:

“Virginians for High Speed Rail (VHSR) strongly supports the objectives of the DC2RVA study.

We also support the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s draft recommendations overall, and specifically the recommendations for the Arlington, Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, and Central Virginia segments of the corridor. We also support the recommendation of further study of the Hanover/Ashland segment to ensure every option is fully evaluated.

VHSR did offer the following recommendations of their own including that Virginia should not cede access to the “A” line around downtown Richmond, which would provide much needed redundancy in the network; and that when the final set of recommendations are released for the DC2RVA corridor that those recommendations list specific near- and intermediate-term projects, along with their anticipated benefits and projected costs to allow for incremental improvements as funding becomes available.

The Commonwealth has been successful in expanding its passenger rail network because of its focused, incremental approach which wisely balances public benefits with public investments. Until such a time that there is a federal rail program with adequate, sustainable, long-term funding, Virginia should maintain this strategy. We believe that the DC2RVA study offers us an opportunity to continue our progress building out our passenger rail network while establishing priorities for when we have an equal and willing federal funding partner."

Virginians for High Speed Rail’s full position statement may be found online here.

Virginians for High Speed Rail is a statewide non-profit coalition of citizens, businesses, localities, community organizations, and economic development agencies that educate and advocate for the expansion of fast, frequent, and reliable rail service connecting our communities to increase the economic potential of the Commonwealth. We were founded in 1994 as a partnership between the RVA Chamber and the Future of Hampton Roads. For more information, please visit www.VHSR.com